"Impossible!" Ingrid shouted as she scrambled to her feet, her face showing pure shock and disbelief.

She watched them go through the beasts as if they were choosing the right fruit from the supermarket— the rabbits were knocked unconscious from the force of Zane and Viktor's hit.

When Ingrid remembered the bet, she winced, feeling a pang of pain at the thought of giving away her shares so easily. She knew she should have trusted her gut that something was wrong when Zane looked at her with that pitying gaze.

But no, her mind was clouded by the thought of watching them be beaten and humiliated by the horned rabbits. 'Ha…I wish I could turn back time and slap my former self.'

"Don't forget our shares!" Viktor called out with a smug smile as he struck another rabbit's neck, knocking it out cold.

Ingrid felt a lump rise in her throat, unable to respond to Viktor's words. Her hand pressed against her chest, face pale, and she turned away—she couldn't take any more blows to her heart.

"How many do you want?!" Zane asked through the electric-like static sounds coming from the rabbit's horns—he mentally counted the rabbits on the ground and felt it was enough, but to be sure, he asked.

"Any... amount," Ingrid responded with a bitter sigh, almost stumbling over his words. The horned rabbits, which her team and she couldn't even approach and still suffered brutal beating, were easily caught by a man.

She couldn't stand the shock; blood welled up in her throat, and she coughed it up before collapsing, pain and disbelief etched across her face.

From the corner of his eye, Viktor saw her hit the ground. He clicked his tongue, shaking his head—she must be truly hurting to let go of some shares.

"Viktor put out the fire. We should stop here. We have enough for lunch, and the remaining will be given to her," Zane said from the side, refraining from chasing the remaining rabbits, who sensed they couldn't win and retreated.

"Oh, I'll put her share in my space. We still need to continue our tour," Viktor said as he crouched down to place the ten rabbits into his space, leaving the other ten for their meal.

After doing that, he put out all the burning leaves before walking toward Zane, who was nudging Ingrid awake with his sheathed sword.

"What's wrong with her? Did a poisonous beast get to her while we were busy?" Zane asked, puzzled by Ingrid's unconscious state. He had never seen anyone faint from too much emotional strain.

"She's fine. She was just too upset to give out her shares. So, are you helping me clean the rabbits in my space?" Viktor changed the subject, showing little concern for Ingrid.

"Let's wake her up first before we enter your space," Zane responded, nudging Ingrid more firmly; her body trembled, but she showed no signs of waking.

"Step aside, let me try." Viktor patted his back, and Zane made way, already losing his patience.

Viktor didn't do much and tapped two fingers on her neck, causing Ingrid to wake up instantly, coughing as if she were choking on something.

"Ah~ you've woken up. Wait for us here; we need to cook some rabbits." Viktor didn't give her a chance to collect herself. He placed a hand on Zane's shoulder, and the two vanished right before her eyes.

"Ahhh!" Ingrid screamed in shock and nearly fainted again, but managed to steady herself at the last second. She dared not lose consciousness in the forest—who knew if she'd wake up inside a beast's stomach?

She leaned against a tree, trying hard to steady her racing heartbeat. The image of them disappearing replayed in her mind countless times until the fear subsided, and she relaxed.

Ingrid wiped her sweat but paused as she remembered she still had to give them shares in her company. The saving grace was that they hadn't specified a number, which meant she could give them any percentage she wanted.

A wave of relief washed over her, and she felt genuinely grateful to Zane and Viktor. If they had been greedy, they would have demanded a specific percentage of her shares, knowing they could easily hunt those beasts. Instead, they had only mentioned shares, leaving her free to decide the percentage herself.

"2% per person is the least I can do to thank them for leaving me a way out." Ingrid decided to wait for them to return before drafting the contract to transfer the shares.

Meanwhile, Viktor was gathering whatever spices he could find to season the meat, while Zane was skinning and cleaning the horned rabbits near the zinc.

"Are we eating only fried meat? Or should we add some noodles?" Zane asked in a suggestive tone as he rinsed the last of the meat and began to dice it into average chunks.

Viktor placed the last of the spices he could recall on the counter, then turned on his hologram screen to look for the recipes he had saved in his files.

"Umm, hold that thought. I'm searching my recipe stash, and if I find any noodle recipes, we'll make one," Viktor muttered, his eyes darting up and down the screen as he scrolled through the pile of saved recipes.

Minutes went by before Viktor suddenly exclaimed, "Got it!"

He tapped on the meat recipe, and luckily, the noodle recipe was the third one after.

"We're in luck, let's start cooking," Viktor hummed as he split his enlarged screen in two, displaying both recipes at once.

Zane moved closer to read through the steps and seasoning measurements for the dish they were about to cook. He was about to happily offer his help when a flashback of the poisonous soup he'd made on the yacht crossed his mind, and the words on the tip of his tongue were swallowed back.

"I will help you stir and wash the dishes," Zane muttered in a helpful tone before looking away from Viktor's screen.

Viktor rolled his eyes at his words. Zane was pretty much doing nothing—there was a smart dishwasher, and he could stir the food himself.

"Sigh... Don't touch anything. Sit to the side—I'll call you when I need you to pass the spices," Viktor said, pointing to the chair closest to the door with a frustrated expression.

Zane gently rubbed the tip of his nose in embarrassment before obediently taking a seat.

Viktor snorted, turned back to the spices on the counter, and started marinating the meat.

He followed the steps while Zane handed him the utensils that were out of reach. As time passed, the delicious aroma of the food made Zane's mouth water, and he could hardly wait for it to be done.

Finally, Viktor played the food, and with Zane's help, they took it out of his space.

"Here. This is yours," Viktor handed a bowl of steaming hot noodles with floating meat chunks to Ingrid as soon as he appeared.

Zane was already eating his meal while sitting on the folding chair he brought out.

"This is good. Not as good as the chefs', but still good. We should catch more horned rabbits before he heads back—their meat is so tender and delicious," Zane said between bites, praising Viktor while wolfing down his food. He was already planning to catch a male and female rabbit to breed later.

"Of course, anything that goes through my hand is nothing but perfection," Viktor bragged before he started eating his food.

Silence settled around them, broken only by the occasional slurp of noodles and the distant roars of monsters in the forest.